It’s been quite the year for our Artists To Watch. We’ve had: singer-songwriters (Dylan LeBlanc, Margo Price, Karl Blau, Brent Cobb), inspiring new takes on blues (Adia Victoria, The Record Company, The Marcus King Band); inspiring new takes on classic rock (OJR), inspiring new takes on glam rock (Kyle Craft), and inspiring new take on indie rock (Car Seat Headrest).

It’s time to put 2016 under the tree with December’s Artist To Watch, the Cincinnati, Ohio duo, Dawg Yawp, whose new record falls into really no apparent musical category. File under: Good Music. The operative word in their multi-instrumental psychedelic folk-rock attack is SITAR! That’s right. Sitar. And plenty of it.

The band’s debut is distinctive and intricately crafted, with touches of folk, blues, bluegrass, hip-hop beats and meditative grooves. Proud dropouts of the Berklee School of Music, Rob Keenan (guitar, vocals and synthesizers), and Tyler Randall (sitar, vocals, guitar, synths and drums) met a decade ago when they were in high school. The road to Dawg Yawp was winding, with Tyler and Rob playing in various bands before coming together to form Dawg Yawp. The band released their self-titled debut full length album in October on Old Flame Records. They play Free At Noon on Friday, December 2nd.

The Facebook

The album

The twitter: @dawgYAWP